Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers in "Stranger Things."
David Harbour as Jim Hopper and Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in "Stranger Things."
Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler in "Stranger Things."
Noah Schnapp as Will Byers and Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in "Stranger Things."
Noah Schnapp as Will Byers in "Stranger Things."

Spoiler alert! The following contains details from Season 5, Episode 4 of "Stranger Things," "Sorcerer."

Will Byers, we always knew you had it in you.

After four and a half seasons of being the victim, of grabbing the back of his neck and writhing around on the floor, the kid who started it all in the first episode of "Stranger Things" has finally come into his own. And we have no idea what will happen next.

When Will (Noah Schnapp) hulks out and shows off his brand new superpowers in the final moments of "Stranger" Season 5, Episode 4 (the final episode in the first "volume" of the season), it's a moment of catharsis for a character who's been poorly treated for most of the run of the show. But it's not the only twist this cliffhanger of an episode offers.

We've got a character returning from what is generally agreed upon to be the worst episode of the series ever (yikes), a second "kidnapping for kids' own good" plot, the total sidelining of four characters for narrative expediency, an epic fiery battle and a cataclysmic plumbing leak all in a single episode. And we have three episodes plus a two-hour finale left in this epic (and unwieldy) tale.

Brace yourselves, the rollercoaster ride has only begun.

The kids are not alright

The episode picks up where Episode 3 left off, with the demogorgon in hot pursuit of Derek (Jake Connelly) at the barn with Joyce (Winona Ryder), Will, Robin (Maya Hawke) and Erica (Priah Ferguson). Derek doesn't cooperate, but after the monster attacks and Joyce defends them with an axe and Steve (Joe Keery) nails it with his car, the annoying kid is suddenly joining the team. Do we really think Joyce scared the monster with an axe? Or did Will have something to do with it? (Yes he did, as we'll learn).

Steve decides to go insane — um, take a risk — and follow the demogorgon into the Upside Down. He speeds after the monster in his car with Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) in tow. It seems like a good idea until they quickly crash into the same flesh wall that Eleven (Millie Bobbie Brown) and Hopper (David Harbour) found a few episodes ago.

Meanwhile, after his latest vision, Will paints a giant mural on the barn wall that is meant to represent the place in the Upside Down where Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) has taken Holly (Nell Fisher). Will also intuits that Vecna has a couple other kids, too, and is looking for a total of 12 to complete his weird evil mainframe. Not great news!

The military that is supposedly in control of Hawkins has also realized kids are going missing, and decides to round up all local 9- and 10-year-olds (whose parents are startlingly OK with this). Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) continues to be kind of an idiot, and thinks that Eleven is the one kidnapping all of the kids.

The remaining gang figures out where the kids are being held, and devise a plan to break in and rescue them. They decide to send Derek in as an inside man, which seems totally foolproof.

Trapped in dreamland

But let's focus on the good news: Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) is back!

After reassuring Holly that she's one of he good guys, Max tells the younger girl her sorry tale. The pair are stuck in "a memory which exists inside a world of a thousand memories ... this world, it's a prison. Henry's prison," she says.

Max got stuck there after she died and came back to life in Season 4. She tried to escape, failed and then eventually found a safe harbor to hide where Vecna couldn't reach her. The big, bad sociopath is scared of a rock cave, or the memory the cave represents (we should all take note of that).

But now that Holly is there too, Max has a plan to extract them both, which starts with Holly going back to the house, and her Mr. Whatsit version of Vecna.

Father/daughter bonding, the 'Stranger Things' way

In the Upside Down, Hopper and El are now focused on breaking into Dr. Kay's military base, where Eleven is convinced Vecna is being held. Hopper points out some logical fallacies in that assumption, but El won't hear it.

Dustin and company get in contact with Hop and El, and eventually figure out that the big fleshy wall is a giant circle around the whole Upside Down. Smack in the center of it is Hawkins Lab, the place where it all began, where El and Vecna were experimented on. Seems like something to investigate. But we'll have to wait until Vol. 2, because we don't hear from these four for the rest of the episode.

Hop and El devise a plan to break into the military base; Hopper is a sweet and supportive father figure this time around, instead of an infuriating one. Once inside, the alarm is tripped, and the soldiers and Dr. Kay pursue them. Hop and El are able to overpower their enemies, even as strange "kryptonite" energy is pumped out of satellites throughout the lab they're in. (Why is this lab fitted out with anti-Eleven devices? Don't worry about it).

In a fit of martyr energy, Hopper tells Eleven to run and find the others while he heads for Vecna's suspected hiding place. Under his jacket is a bomb vest − he plans on sacrificing himself to take Vecna down. He says goodbye to his surrogate daughter as she screams for him not to do this. Ultimately, he won't have to.

Because inside the vault is not Vecna (we all knew this) but ... Eight (Linnea Berthelsen)! Who is Eight? All the way back in Season 2, Eleven ran away from home and fell in with a group of urban punks led by Kali Prasad, aka Eight. Kali was also experimented on by Hawkins Lab and has the power to create illusions. Kali's version of vigilante justice didn't sit well with El, who eventually abandoned her "sister" and returned to Hawkins. Eight/Kali was never heard from again, in part because the episode was universally panned by critics and fans. It was meant to be a "backdoor pilot," aka a launchpad for a spinoff about Kali and her friends that never materialized. But apparently the show's creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, weren't done with Kali.

Let's hope she is one of the good guys. She certainly can't like Dr. Kay very much.

Plan C, kidnap more kids!

Above ground, Derek makes his way into the "MAC-Z" Trojan Horse-style and rounds up the kids who have been having visions of Vecna. Our heroes plan to smuggle the kids out in Murray's truck.

As they're prepping the plan, Robin notices that Will is clearly in love with Mike. She later gives him a touching speech about how coming out is less about who you are attracted to and more about accepting who you are. Hmm, think this will be significant? Nah.

As Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) start digging into the barracks, they hit a pipe, which any plumber will tell you is a fatal mistake. They start pulling out the kids through a hole in the bathroom with help from Derek, but then multiple pipes in the bathroom start spraying water everywhere. The gang is forced to split up: Robin has some kids, Lucas has others, while Mike, Will and Joyce are trapped by the soldiers with Derek and the rest.

At this opportune moment, of course, the demogorgons attack, and the over-confident soldiers are no match for them. There are tons this time, as opposed to the single monsters Vecna sent after Holly and Derek. They also seem far more preoccupied with killing soldiers than grabbing kids. It all feels annoyingly convenient for the plot, but the sequence is thrilling.

Will Byers just had to ... let it go

Just as the military has one up on the demos, Vecna strides out of the Upside Down gate, ignoring the spray of bullets from the soldiers. In moments all of those soldiers are dead.

Vecna glides over to poor Will (psychopath or not, the dude has an excellent runway walk), swatting Joyce away. Then, like all good super villains, he monologues. He tells Will that he targets children because they are "weak" and "easily broken, reshaped and controlled." Vecna says Will has a mind that doesn't belong in the real world, but rather in Vecna's world — implying Will is fundamentally broken in some way. That's pretty mean. Especially for a kid struggling with his identity and sexuality.

The demos drag all of the kids away, and are about to kill Robin, Lucas and Mike when ... surprise! That speech Robin gave Will earlier in the tunnels surfaces in his mind as an ethereal voiceover; suddenly Will believes in himself and understands the power was inside him all along. And with a flick of Will Byers' wrist, all the monsters freeze.

Put another way, Will Byers is Elsa in "Frozen" and has his own "Let it Go" moment. Good for him.

With creepy glassed-over eyes, Will absolutely decimates the demogorgons threatening his friends, demonstrating telekinesis on par with Eleven's power and strength. His nose even bleeds a little, just like everyone's favorite Eggo-loving superhero. It's gratifying to see Schnapp in such an omnipotent, fearsome state.

So what does this mean? Is this an accident or part of Vecna's plan? Vecna could be taking the kids to give them powers, akin to his own little version of Hawkins lab. Or this could be an accident: Will's eyes go glassy like Max's and the other Vecna victims' did in Season 4.

Now, we have another reason to count down all the days until Christmas, when more episodes drop.

All we know is that suddenly we have two (maybe three, if you count Eight) major weapons against Vecna for the coming battle. And Will seems pissed and ready to fight.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Stranger Things' Season 5 Vol. 1 ends with this big cliffhanger – Recap

Reporting by Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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